The vinyl magic

[gryphon]

Over the last few months , I have been slowly collecting the CD reissues of the Beatles back catalog and enjoying each one bit by bit. I have had my original CDs out and have sat and compared the two and thought to myself............well this is what we have all been waiting for for a long time..................................ON a parallel path I have been servicing my oldish turntable and putting it back into good working order and repositioning it so that it can achieve its best performance. A couple of times , I have brought in a few old discs and sat down to play around and tune things a little here and there. ( A twelve year old MC cartridge needs a bit of aligning etc. So, it took a while to get things as they should be.

I was always a serious vinyl user ...........good cleaning techniques careful handling etc , so my vinyl collection was always in pretty good condition.

So I wonder through the vinyl and select Beatles 1962-1966 and place it on the old turntable.......................I sit down ad listen ......................and wonder ...............how far have we really come? I expected to hear some surface noise and older mixing would lead me to feel that things could be better..........but that was all.................the sound was still amazing.............really not that untidy or rough...........it was a full sound convincing me that the four Beatles were just a few feet in front of me!!!!

I check the copy .............It is a German copy ( No DMM though) and its in good condition..................I remembered back to the days when I used to be a vinyl head...............I used to try and get discs that were worthy of the equipment I would play them on...............not the music .................the technical quality......I would go for original pressings ( First editions !!) or pressings that were recommended by people in the know ( I remember still the first direct o dic cut I ever bought and how amazed I as that a aband could do a live mix in one take and the quality when the simple mike............desk .............cutting lath appraoch was used)

So what am I thinking

Well do others have recommended pressings that one should seek out?

I would say that my German copy is an excellent pressing ............THe UK one is good too but should we consider putting together athread of recommended vinyl pressings or albums ( or CDs , SACDs DVDas)( From a hi-fi point of view for others to find an appreciate ?):happy:


If we did

I'd start with

Beatles 1962-1966

German Apple

Code 1c 188-05 307/08

as being well worth finding and auditioning

[Music Head]

"vinyl head"

damn, why didn't I think of that?

:doh:

[gryphon]

Let's try setting an area of MD to put in classic pressings etc !

[Music Head]

Wouldn't know where to begin.

All of my pressings are classic.

[gryphon]

I think we can use one of the old formats ( modified ) that they used to use in the HI-Fi Magazines:

First I think we need a separate sub forum maybe ( Perhaps a title like

classic pressings /burnings of classic albums ( Something like that )

a brief description of the band/ maybe potted history

a brief description of the album

Description of the format( brief ! CD , Vinyl 150g SACD , DVDA 45 RPM album set etc

A piece about the origin of the edition : country label ( version of the label) code etc ( So that you could recognize the edition to look for.............

Why this version is a superior version ( Direct cut, DMM,,DDD CD 150g vinyl, classic first pressing on a decent nut of vinyl , CD from first generation master tapes, remix etc etc)

Technical quality scale 1 to 10 ( scale for analogue and a scale for digital recordings )

Special features : booklet ......recording data

Any other relevant data extra tracks etc

Maybe a picture of the sleeve/cover .:nod:

I don't think we are looking for run of the mill things here but; more a guide to the really excellent things that are out there ,
I don't expect to review everything on this thread but, the feel should be that if you are interested in this sort of thing and you want to find real audio masterpieces then this would be the blue ribbon section to look in.mile::rapture:

[Tiggi]

I'm a big fan of vinyl (despite most of my music being on CD). I changed to CD because vinyl sourcing became difficult. I believe it's less so via the interweb, but vinyl comes expensive now, so I've stuck with digits.

I'll post a few examples when I have more time...

[gryphon]

Here in The Netherlands ( and Belgium and Germany) the second hand market is strong and I can still find plenty of vinyl for not many Euros................in addition we still have excellent independent CD /record shops .............one not to far from me has thousands of albums , so I can still get good access.

[jwee5467]

In terms of vinyls in Australia (I guess I will serve as the Aussie correspondent here), it is quite rare to find good quality vinyls in Sydney at least although there are a few stores in Newtown that serve as my library every time I am down in the area - there must be at least 5 second-hand book/CD/Vinyls stores on this road and I love it! The quality is not the best, in comparison with the vinyls that I have collected from Radio record sales as well as my father's collection which has some amazing records.

On the topic of listening, I have to say that vinyls is my preference and i try and find vinyls of new records too (often means buying them from the US) but the quality of the recording of both old and new issues is amazing, and I just can't get enough of the crackling and intimacy of the old vinyl recordings.

At the moment, I pulled out my Original of Led Zeppelin IV and it is a dime to listen to. I also have an original Imagine album and that should be also just as amazing.

[Tiggi]

My most treasured vinyl record is a Japanese pressing of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Japanese vinyl is renowned for its' high quality, and this cost me an arm & a leg some 20 years ago. It gets played very rarely - usually play the CD - and so is in absolutely mint condition.

[gryphon]

The Japanese have an amazing eye for high quality , their vinyl has often been prized , many of the best pressings available have come out of there........I have a couple of Japanese Beatle albums.....and even though it seems difficult to believe that one CD can be better than another, the two Beatles CDs I have are much better sounding than the standard Europe or US versions............in addition the lavish packaging etc has to be seen to be believed.

One interesting note : The current wave of EMI issued Beatles reissues were the result of unofficial activity in Japan : The Dr. Ebbetts ( Bootleg ) series of remasters were of such high quality that they actually pressured EMI into doing restoration on their Beatles catalog .